Blindwater Congregation
The Blindwater Congregation is a pseudo-state originating from the Blindwater Lake and Bloodsmeath Swamp created by the powerful and ancient Gatormen Bokor known as Bloody Barnabas for his ascension to godhood. Since its creation it has absorbed many Gatormen tribes both peacefully and violently. Many "lesser" races such as Swamp Gobbers, Bog Trogs and Croaks have also joined willingly or forcefully. Since the apotheosis of Bloody Barnabas into the Lord of Blood the Congregation is undergoing many changes and is rapidly expanding its influence to more distant Gatormen tribes. History The Blindwater Congregation begins with the hatching of Barnabas more than three centuries ago. By early adulthood Barnabas was already a powerful and formidable bokor who lead his own tribe. Most Gatormen chiefs have no great ambition beyond ruling their tribe and patrolling whatever small region they have marked off as their territory. Barnabas however planned to defy death and spent his first century in campaign of conquest across the Blindwater region, not over territory or resources but for the deference of his rivals. He demanded to be acknowledged as their master, and he swiftly killed those who defied him and by 400 AR, his dominance over the tribes of the Bloodsmeath region was complete. For him it was enough to be venerated and other mystics of his race dared elevate themselves higher than him he made examples but was mostly a benevolent ruler who allowed each tribe to govern itself. While bokors had long been respected and valued in gatorman culture, their position was reinforced in the Blindwater, where they served as intermediaries between Barnabas and his ever-growing flock creating a new theocracy in the swamp.No Quarter Prime #3 Barnabas plundered old Morrdhic and Orgoth ruins for stones filled with latent dark energies which were used to create ritual spaces around his ever-growing palace, a ziggurat serving as both temple and throne. By the turn of the next century, the worship of Barnabas had spread across Blindwater and begun to reach beyond. Adherents fabricated religious totems to pray for his protection and intervention, and they often went to his palace with offerings. Each tribe sent a number of young warriors for his use, glad to join in his battles against his enemies. However the worship of Kossk remained and tolerated as the Gatormen believe in the existence of a diverse array of spirits, with the greater feeding upon the lesser with Kossk being the greatest. Thus the possibility existed of another spirit challenging or even exceeding it. Barnabas soon earned the honorific hok-shisan, a term normally reserved for addressing venerated spirits such as Kossk itself. The Blindwater Congregation remained disorganized being nothing more than a large cult of personality with no clear direction. This changed with the arrival of new leaders, particularly the warlocks known as Calaban, the Grave Walker and Jaga- Jaga, the Deathcharmer. Calaban, a cunning and politically minded gatorman, had already begun to exercise a degree of influence and power over the Fenn Marsh tribes and in 606 AR, he made a pilgrimage to Blindwater with his most formidable warbeasts, warriors, and bound spirits. Soon thereafter their combined might brought most of the region’s bog trogs under their dominion. Barnabas foresaw that the path to godhood would only come on a tide of carnage and slaughter. He preached a dark message that would require the gatormen to escalate to full warfare and endure losses beyond anything they had experienced before. Calaban was not a true believer and considered Barnabas to be deranged. Calaban handled day-to-day governance of the tribes and their warriors and many other bokors lent their talents and mystical powers to the Congregation, harnessing spirits and leading their reptilian armies to victory. Many spiritually conservative mystics remained against the congregation until the arrival of Jaga-Jaga from Marchfells bordering the Bloodstone Marches. Her visions affirmed the imminent divinity of their ancient master and she claimed that Barnabas as an avatar and embodiment of Kossk to reconcile the two groups. It was during such vision that Kossk itself manifested, leading the armies of the congregation to a great clash in the Bloodstone Marches against both trollkin and farrow armies. During this battle Barnabas and the farrow leader Lord Carver confronted one and Barnabas was struck down, his chest torn open by Carver’s cleaver. However his body was already filled with the energies arisen from the carnage around him. He reemerged stronger than before to become the god he had long boasted it was his destiny to become. Even the doubting Calaban was awed by this feat. With the apotheosis of Bloody Barnabas into the Lord of Blood they no longer need to sustain the frenzied slaughter they once considered necessary. The Congregation continues to evolve into a powerful theocracy and it seeks to replace their losses from previous bloody campaigns by subjugating more members. Since the Congregation has grown so large, its hunting sorties have begun to target increasingly ambitious prey, including towns and villages. As Barnabas has decreed that his worship should be spread to all the gatormen of western Immoren a portion of his Congregation now journeys to the most far-flung swamps on the continent seeking converts. Society Daily life in the Blindwater Congregation is in most regards quite similar to the way gatorman tribes have lived across western Immoren for untold centuries, a time-tested cycle of hunting, mating, and sleeping broken up by periods of worship. However the integration of so many tribes into a single cause and the imposition of a new faith have caused significant ripples. It is growing into a powerful and formidable new theocracy with a rising priest caste centered around Barnabas, a privileged group who are feared and respected and who have tremendous sway over the lives of those below them in the Congregation. The concentration of the population in Blindwater has also allowed the gatormen to divide labor for the first time with dedicated posses of dozens of gatormen hunters making regular expeditions to gather sufficient prey to provide for other members of their tribes seek out large beasts like feral ironbacks or swamp horrors in order to secure adequate meat for the day, but failing that they will fall upon an undefended village and bring back as many corpses as they can carry. Due to the gathered races in the Congregation they are often accompanied by groups of croak hunters, who serve as scouts, and throngs of bog trogs, who serve as pack mules, front line fodder or convenient snacks. Thus they are relatively efficient with food gathering and the food that are not distributed to those occupied with important tasks other than hunting is sometimes smoked or dried and stored for later consumption. While Bokors do not hunt often they pride themselves on being physically formidable enough to do so if necessary. However their culture remains brutal and unforgiving with no tolerance to weakness and infirmity. The crippled and ill are often killed and devoured by their tribe and the victims themselves consider it a duty and an honor to make this final contribution to their tribes, though they will not allow them to be killed easily. Young gatormen who do not survive the hunt are not as they have proven to be too weak or stupid to. Each tribe sees to its own interests, and those unable to do so are considered undeserving of the proud status of being gatormen and the privilege of worshipping the Lord of Blood and the feeble tribes will not receive any aid if they are unable to find their own food. The Congregation continues the Gatormen tradition of lacking respect for bodies of their dead which are re-purposed as food for warbeasts or as raw material for bokors fabricating arcane totems and fetishes used in warfare and worship. Like all Gatormen Congregation rituals involve blood sacrifice and the consumption of flesh. The sacrifices are meant to appease the dark spirits that linger in the swamp so that they might bestow upon a bokor strength and magic. Around Barnabas Countless rituals of appeasement take place within the tribes as offerings are brought forth for Barnabas .Barnabas covets the power of great spirits more than the souls of measly swamp dwellers. Thus while warriors bring living victims for a feast of flesh the bokors toil to bring him a feast of spirits. The priesthood of Barnabas receives its portion of the more mundane repast, but only individuals like Calaban and Jaga- Jaga, who lead efforts to lure and harness potent spirits, are given leave to sample some of this latter fare. Whether by choice or coercion, every gatorman in the Congregation is expected to worship Barnabas, the Lord of Blood. While many still pray to the traditional god Kossk. It is common to endeavor to offer respect to both, but Barnabas is a jealous god. Traditionalists are wise to continue sacrificing in his name and to keep their displays of reverence to Kossk modest in comparison. The oppressed and largely enslaved bog trogs within the Congregation fear Barnabas but still primarily worship the great spirit they call Ashiga. However in front of bokors, even the most pious mist speakers will admit Barnabas is greater than Ashiga, though they may speak otherwise in private. Croaks quietly revere the conjoined twins Tagasca and Dagascar, whose merged forms are considered the height of perfection. Tagasca is deemed a goddess of hunting and warfare, while Dagascar is a prophetic being who taught croaks the use of tools and protects them by bestowing luck. Croaks tend to exist on the periphery of Congregation society and are largely allowed to live as they wish so long as they honor Barnabas and obey gatorman leaders. While Gatormen are the backbone of the Blindwater Congregation and its armies many "lesser" races have joined both willingly and unwillingly. The united tribes of Gatormen under the Congregation absorbed many Bog trog by a bloody war tribes who entered into servitude under the gatormen and acknowledging their right to rule. Those tribes who refuse still contribute to the Blindwater Congregation, as their flesh nourishes its gatorman warriors and their discarded bodies are reanimated to fight on after death.The Blindwater Congregation also counts several small tribes of these croaks who view the gatormen with fascinated awe. and have found easier acceptance among the gatormen as they have never competed with the gatormen for territory. In return for service the Congregation have offered the coraks escaping Skorne slavery territory in the Northern Thornwood as a place to call home. Swamp gobbers near the Blindwater Congregation have entered into a wary symbiosis with the worshippers of Barnabas while some tribes even openly affiliating themselves with the Blindwater Congregation to both avoid destruction by the large reptilians, but also seeing it as an opportunity to improve their lot. They act gobbers act as craftsmen and scouts, fabricating useful items for the congregants and blending in with communities where the gatormen cannot. In return, the swamp gobbers are given leave to loot the bodies of the slain before gatormen consume them. Settlements Congregation settlements are like typical Gatormen villages, built in dark and gloomy swamps surrounded by high growths of cattails and reeds or built in the shelter of overhanging willow trees. They contain loosely thatched short, wide huts of reeds and plants lashed together and partially sealed by daubed plants and mud which sit on muddy foundations, with dampness and cold air able to easily seep inside. Flooring inside the huts usually consists of lengths of dried grasses strewn across the dirt. Most of lack walls to defend some have rough palisades around their perimeters. Each village is surrounded by countless predators and other perilous creatures lurking in the swamp. Outside are simple racks for drying meat constructed of branches tied into a loose lattice, as well as other basic structures such as pens to contain hatchlings. In more swampy areas, each hut is built on mounds of mud heaped high enough to rise above the surrounding water and allowed to dry. Channels of oozing water separate these artificial islets, deepened to allow gatormen or warbeasts controlled by a village warlock to swim through. The Congregation however displays their capability to erect more lasting structures such as the great palace temple of the Lord of Blood. In the heart of the Blindwater Congregation’s territory, a growing town has been built, with a greater number of gatorman living in close quarters than has ever been the case before. Here, the gatormen have erected more sophisticated dwellings and monuments, including sacral vaults that serve as both weapons of war and mobile sites of ritualized slaughter in the names of Barnabas or Kossk. Even in this capital of the Congregation, most stone structures are used for religious or ceremonial purposes, not as living spaces. Bog trog villages superficially resemble those of gatormen but are smaller and more closely packed reed huts. Within each hut, the bog trogs dig a small, cozy burrow for sleeping. As bog trogs spend a substantial portion of their waking time in the water their villages are built with even more access to water than those of gatormen, often integrating streams or small ponds directly. Bog trogs also have a greater fondness for being underground and create limited networks of water-logged or entirely submerged subterranean passages and chambers with logs and stone to prevent collapse. Small shrines and statues to Ashiga are placed in some of these chambers and visited by mist speakers who commune with them. Military Gatormen make up the backbone of Barnabas’ armies with only the warriors of the hardiest races, like trollkin or ogrun, have a chance of matching an adult Gatormen without relying on advanced weapons and magic. Gatormen posses are the frontline soldiers of the Blindwater Congregation while Gatorman bokors make up the elite upper class who lead these posses in battle, enhancing capabilities of their warriors with chanted invocations and using their necromantic magic and control of spirits in battle. They may also command legions of mindless swamp shamblers and perform occult rituals to grant mystical aid, harnessing the death energies that flow freely during combat. Bog Trogs act as skilled ambushers which si further aided by their ability to change the colouration of their skin. The shamans of the bog trogs, called mist speakers, inspire their fellows in battle, commanding magic that draws upon the duplicitous nature of their people and the watery habitat in which they dwell. Croak hunters and raiders have proven themselves a useful addition to the Blindwater Congregation. They coat their weaponry in poisons secreted from their own skin and use primitive flammable oils refined from swamp plants in conjunction with burning javelins hurled by atlatls to set enemies ablaze. Their abilities and tactics allows the Croaks to defeat much stronger enemies. Swamp Gobbers are more involved in making weapons and equipment for the Congregation than joining battle. With the other races have little to know understanding of metal-crafting swamp gobber smiths manufacture steel weapons including the chopping blades gatormen prefer and also use natural alchemical and metallurgic processes to increase the material’s resistance to corrosion due to the humid environments they fight in. When they join battle they use more advanced equipment such as specialized bellows that produce thick clouds of artificial fog which conceal parties of ambushers when launching unexpected raids on opponents unable to see through the dense obscuring mists as well as grapple pistols built from discarded firearms used by swamp gobber raiders to board passing riverboats or to latch onto targets and reel themselves into striking distance. Warlocks of the gatormen and bog trogs are rare and powerful individuals with a special connection to the deadly creatures that share their murky environs. The ability to bond with and control warbeasts affords warlocks a great deal of personal influence that enables them to rise within their tribes. The bokors of the gatormen believe the ability to commune with the amphibious and undead swamp monsters is a gift from the great spirit Kossk, allowing these warlocks to subjugate and exploit the beasts of its domain. Bog trog warlocks in particular relish this, exercising tyrannical authority over their tribes as they can rise to a higher stature and gain the sometimes reluctant respect of gatorman warriors. While all bokors command the necromantic energies of the swamp and can unleash them on their foes, warlocks are particularly adept at these arts due to the experience in regulating the flow of vitality between self and beast. Some warlocks are drawn to the energies of death than others, feeling a stronger bond with spirits and animated boneswarms Bog trog mystics on the other hand rely less upon the energies of death, instead tapping into the elemental forces of their environment and invoking mist, rain, and fetid decay. Gatorman or bog trog warlock do not train or tame their beasts but crush their will in a short and brutal mental struggle with its own dangers. The creatures lash back at this mental intrusion and warlocks that fail are quickly ripped to bloody shreds. If successful it becomes a pawn under the warlock’s control, at least while the warlock maintains that control. However these beasts are patient and will exploit any perceived weakness or inattention if their masters become complacent. The creatures closest to the gatormen are their less intelligent alligator beasts such as the blackhides and bull snappers with the greatest being the dracodile, a hulking monster that can swallow most other creatures whole and can stand against even troll kings and colossal warjacks. Others include great turtles like the ironback spitter and the bizarre and terrifying swamp horror. Ironback spitters have competed with alligators and gatormen for prey in their territories, challenging entire posses of warriors. Warlocks value them for their impenetrable hides and corrosive, steel-melting spittle. Swamp horrors are useful for their multitude of tentacle attacks and their peculiar mystical essence, which allows a warlock to bring a degree of mutable flexibility to his arsenal. Among the necromantic constructs of the Congregation are boneswarms and blind walkers. Boneswarms are ever-growing agglomerations of corpses accumulated in gatorman battles, given shape and malevolent ferocity by the spirits bokors control while blind walkers are mindless enslaved creatures who yet live, though their bodies and essences are forever changed by powerful necromantic rituals to allow them to serve as conduits for a warlock’s potent spells. Bokors of the Blindwater capture or enslave a variety of strange and mystical creatures. Thrullgs subsist almost entirely on a diet of alchemy and magic, able to devour the arcane power of a spell or render mechanika and steamjacks inert. When the Congregation must fight against the industrialized forces of the Iron Kingdoms, thrullgs are baited with arcane trinkets or the scent of sorcery and guided to the battlefield, where they are unleashed upon the warlocks, arcanists, and warjacks of the enemy. Feralgeists are predatory natural spirits drawn to the entropic energy of death and dying who hunger to inhabit and control flesh, which they can fuse with and command as their own. Unable to control living creatures, a feralgeist can sink into the corpse of a freshly slain beast and reanimate it as a graceless puppet of the spirit’s own will. Bokors know rituals that can bind a roaming feralgeist for a time, and they are often used to sow chaos amid enemy ranks by reanimating the corpses of freshly slain warbeasts. References Category:Minions Category:Hordes